Letting go and moving forward
Enjoying the last days in my Sonoma studio
This is my Sonoma studio that we built from the ground up in 2018. Now I’m packing it all up to move into who knows what in the Netherlands.
Under the DAFT Treaty, American entrepreneurs are given a 2 year visa with a 5 year renewal. After the 2 year renewal, we hope to buy a home in the NL. Until then we will rent … somewhere. The housing market is incredibly challenging in Europe right now. Too few properties for too many residents. We are searching for housing in several cities in the Netherlands to offer more choice. We hired a makelaar (real estate agent) to help us in the search as we need to secure housing before we move and apply for the DAFT (a bit terrifying!).
I don’t have high aspirations for a new studio other than having one. I hope to find a home with a separate room for my studio that’s in one of the bedrooms/slaapkamers (I love this word!). We’re hoping to live in the city again because we miss the lifestyle.
The homes in Netherland cities seem pretty typical from my cursory search on Pararius or Funda: attached townhouses or rowhouses with steep stairs and often two or three floors. This is so typical that I'm pretty sure this is what we will find. It’s similar to what we had in San Francisco except … often no garage! In SF, they are called HOG’s (Housing Over Garage). In the NL, instead of car parking, you park your bike on the sidewalk in front, in the entrance hall or out back in a shed. We will not have a car. I’m really looking forward to giving that up. But this will make setting up a studio an interesting project. Here’s an example of taller townhouses in Amsterdam, slopes included and with bike parking:
We’re avoiding Amsterdam. The market is too competitive, too expensive and too crowded for us. If you want to see more of my Sonoma studio, it was featured in Sonoma’s local lifestyle magazine just after it was built, i.e. clean!
Circling back around to read the few posts that I missed when you began writing but before I began reading. I'm enjoying following your Netherlands adventure from afar! We are in transition as well, and I'm preparing to sublet my precious, spacious, affordable SF studio, and I feel so sad! I am wondering, what was it like to say goodbye to your own precious space, one that you had built just for you? How did you manage it, and how did you carry your energy with you into your new home/studio? I notice that most artists seem to create intensely personal spaces, and infuse them with their creative energies. Your post about Jenny's studio was wonderful, such a good example of this. Thanks for your thoughts :)
A great overview of CA to NL, plus inspiration for a tidy studio and the townhouses with their abundant windows are perfection. Enjoy!